Lara Celenza is an award-winning director and producer of narrative films and documentaries. She is best known for her work in the HBO series “Big Little Lies”, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and won the Golden Globe for Best Limited Series.
Lara was born in New York City and grew up in a small town in Connecticut. She studied film production at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating, she served as an assistant director on the television series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”.
In 2012, Lara wrote and directed her first feature film, “The Girl on the Train”. The film was selected for the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival. She has since gone on to direct and produce a number of award-winning short films and documentaries, including “The Short Film Showcase”, which was nominated for an Emmy.
In 2016, Lara was named one of Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch”. The same year, she was selected to be a part of the Sundance Institute’s “Women in Film” program, which focuses on the development and education of female filmmakers.
Lara is an advocate for the representation of women in film and television. She is a mentor for the New York Women in Film & Television’s “Mentor Access Project” and an alumnus of the Sundance Institute’s Women in Film program.
Lara is currently directing her first feature-length documentary, “The Last Album”, which is set to be released in 2020. She is also in pre-production on her first narrative feature film, “The Space Between”, which is set to begin filming in the summer of 2019.
Lara’s work has been featured at festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, and more. She is an inspiring filmmaker, whose work has been praised by audiences and critics alike. Her commitment to creating films that tell unique stories from a female perspective is sure to continue to inspire young filmmakers for years to come.
